Chicken Soup Kisses
by Klitch
Summary: Kensuke fluff, sequel to Count the Seconds, Count the Steps. Ken is sick and Daisuke takes care of him with varying degrees of success.


**"Chicken Soup Kisses"**

Disclaimer: Seriously, do I really need one of these? I don't want to write one right now, so think of your favorite disclaimer and pretend it's in this space. 

Prerequisite yaoi warning: Does anyone not know what yaoi is? Guys with guys, no like, no read, you know the drill. 

Author's Notes: This one was harder to write than "Count the Seconds, Count the Steps" and it's not as...weird, I guess, because it's in Daisuke's POV and I don't see him as having strange thoughts like Ken. It's hard to write in Dai's POV, too, because I figure he wouldn't be as eloquent as Ken either. That said, this is Kensuke fluff. A little deep thoughts near the end, but mostly fluff. I may write a third one of these back in Ken's POV and that one might be more angsty, but I'm taking a break from that sort of thing to write fluff. Enjoy. 

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I know it's gonna sound weird but....I have Ken Ichijouji in my bed and I'm not happy about it. Don't get me wrong, I love him more than anything....it's just that I thought the first time he would be in my bed, it wouldn't be because his parents had to go out of town for the weekend and he's got some kind of virus. 

After I ran into Ken; well, okay, after he threw rocks at my window late Wednesday night--actually, I guess it would be early Thursday morning since it was after midnight--he wasn't looking too good. He was all hot and flushed and stuff, so I took him inside and set him on my bed and tried to warm him up. I guess that wasn't very smart of me, since being too hot was his problem in the first place. No, he was cold, it was just his forehead that was hot. Or was it....? 

Ah, I'm confusing myself again. It's times like this I wish I had Ken's big brain. Mine's just not large enough to figure this kinda stuff out. Oh well, I'm getting off track anyway. 

Well, I called Ken's parents in the morning and they came and picked him up and took him to a doctor. He caught some kind of illness, I don't know what exactly. At least that's what he told me, and he didn't go to school for two days. I know because I went to see him after school every day and he was still in his pajamas. And I gotta say, he's really cute in those pajamas. With his hair all stringy and messy, and his eyes all sleepy....he was so cute I could've kissed him, except I didn't because he was afraid I'd catch whatever he's got. I told him that I kissed him Wednesday--or Thursday, whatever--and I feel fine, but he still refused. That's Ken : always practical, even when he's red and sniffly with hair sticking to his forehead. 

I'm off track again. I gotta stop doing that. Anyway, Ken's parents had to go out of town to visit a relative in the hospital, but they didn't want to leave Ken alone and they didn't want to take him with them when he wasn't feeling well. So that's when _I_ stepped in and said I'd take care him over the weekend. Ken gave me a look and said, 'What am I, a puppy?' but I ignored him. He should know he's in safe hands with me. 

Yep, I'm Daisuke Motomiya, Child of Courage and Friendship, best friend and boyfriend to the cutest and smartest purple-haired boy in Japan. I think I should add nurse to that list of accomplishments, too. Mom and Dad and Jun are letting me take care of Ken all by myself, and I'm going to show them that I can. 

You know, that does kinda make Ken sound like a puppy. I wonder, if I work hard enough, does that mean they'll let me keep him? 

"Daisuke?" Oops, Ken's awake! Damn, how long does it take this stuff to cook? I've never made chicken noodle soup before. I bet it said on the can how long to cook it for, but I threw it away and Jun already took out the trash. That was the last can of chicken soup, too, so I can't look on any other cans for directions. 

"Daisuke?" Hmm, what to do, what to do. Ken needs me, but I can't leave the soup. Ah, I'll only be gone for a minute. Soup can't burn anyway, right? It's mostly water anyhow. 

"Here I am Ken!" I saunter into my room, eager to please. Ken looks up at me, and I think he looks a little less red than before. Chibimon and Minomon are on the bed with him, keeping him company. Except for now, since they're asleep, so it's up to me to keep him company. "Do you need anything? Another pillow? A blanket?" 

"Daisuke, you've already given me three extra pillows," Oh yeah, I forgot! What, I'm just trying to be helpful. 

"What do you need then? A drink? Or more cough syrup?" 

"I don't need anything, Daisuke." He gives me this little sickly smile and I just want to hug him. I can't though, because Ken's not letting me touch him. He's says he's contagious, but I think he's just being too smart for his own good again. No mere cold can keep Daisuke Motomiya away from his boyfriend! I move towards him, all sneaky and sly and stuff so he won't notice, and he holds up his hands. 

"Daisuke, I told you before, I'm sick. You're going to get sick too at this rate, and then _I'll_ have to take care of _you._" He glares at me, but I keep moving. 

"Let's see you stop me, sick boy!" I dive, ready to take him in my arms and tickle him to death, when he shouts out, 

"Sic 'im!" Chibimon and Minomon jump off the bed and knock me down. Aw man, that's not playing fair! I fall back, tripping over a shoe lying in the middle of the floor. 

"That was playing dirty, Ken!" Minomon hovers back to Ken's side, but I grab Chibimon. He's got some explaining to do. "How could you? You're supposed to be my partner!" 

"But-but--" Chibimon looks at me with those big red terminally cute eyes and I feel my resolve weakening. Damn, why'd I get stuck with the super cute in-training? "But Ken has _chocolate!"_

"What?!" In a flash I'm on my feet. "You have chocolate and you didn't give me any? And where'd you get chocolate anyway?" 

"It was in your drawer." Ken smiles sheepishly, I don't know whether I want to kiss him or kill him. "But I woke up and you weren't here, and I was hungry." That cute smile of his turns smug. "And you can't have any of what's left, either, because I touched it and I'm sick." Ack, he's taunting me! He takes a half-eaten chocolate bar out of his pocket and gives a little to Minomon. Chibimon wriggles away from me and bounces over for his reward. 

"Then why do _they_ get some?!" I know I'm whining, but I don't care. I wanna be a Digimon. They get to lick chocolate off of Ken's fingers and sleep on his lap. I'm his boyfriend, that's supposed to be _my_ job! 

"Digimon aren't susceptible to human diseases," he tells me in that matter-of-fact voice he always uses when he's being smart. He sounds like Koushiro, but sweeter. 

"How do you know?" 

"Trust me." Ken's got this weird mischievous look in his eye, and then--Oh, no fair! He ate the rest of my chocolate! 

"I can't believe you, Ken! First you won't let me kiss you, and now--" Ken suddenly starts coughing, and my anger evaporates. I dash towards his bed, but he holds out his hands again. 

"I-I'm okay," he coughs out, but I can't help moving a little closer. I get worried about him sometimes, he seems so thin and frail and delicate. 

"I'm _fine."_ He stops coughing and starts trying to get the chocolate off his fingers. Aw, this is torture! My boyfriend is sitting in my bed and covered in chocolate and I'm not allowed to touch him! It's like some sort of twisted nightmare! 

That's it, I've had enough! I'm going to get that chocolate off of him, come hell or high water or-- 

"Daisuke!" Or Mom. I don't care what she wants, I've got delicious, candy- coated Ken sitting in _my_ bed, tangled up in _my_ sheets, and I'm not letting anything stop me from-- 

"Daisuke! Is something burning?" Shit, the chicken soup! Okay, decision time. Ken, soup, Ken, soup. I really wanna pick Ken, but if the kitchen catches on fire again Mom'll kill me. 

"Be right back!" 

And I'm off in a flash to fix whatever mess I've caused. Ken kinda blinks at me, but I don't have time to sit and think that's cute because I'm burning the soup. 

Okay, don't panic, Daisuke, the soup's just boiling a little too hard. Turn off the heat, there we go, now wait for it to cool down. 

It's not cooling. Why is it still boiling? I'm impatient and Ken's probably almost clean of chocolate by now and I hate waiting! I grab an oven mitt and take hold of the handle of the pot, just in case, and dump the whole thing in the sink. 

Geez, that's a lot of smoke. And I think I burned the pot too, it's kinda....black. I mean, like, _really_ black. Mom isn't going to be happy. Maybe if I scrub it real good she won't notice. 

I drop the pot and speed back to my room. Now, for some nice-- 

Ken's asleep again. He _fell asleep._

Oh crap. I sigh and go back to the kitchen to start cleaning the pot. 

~~~~ 

I hate doing the dishes, but I burned them and my parents are making me clean them. I don't have any excuse not to since Ken's still asleep. 

This is so wrong. I want to sit with him and watch him sleep and maybe steal a kiss or twelve, and I have to do the dishes. Hurry and wake up, Ken. I need an excuse to see you right now, and that's the only one I have. 

Hmm? I think I heard a cough. Lessee....yep, that was a cough! Ken's awake! I drop the dishes back into the sink and speed into his room. Ken blinks sleepily at me, and I think he just woke up. 

"Hey Ken! Feeling better?" 

"Daisuke...." Ken coughs a little and sniffles. His nose is all stuffed up, but we're out of Kleenex. I think he's a little annoyed about that, but he's too polite to say so. "Yeah....a little better." He coughs again. 

"Anything you need?" That's me, eager to please. 

"Um....I'm a little hungry, actually." Before I can say anything else, Jun calls to me from the other room. 

"Hey, Daisuke! One of your friends is here!" 

I turn around to see Hikari standing in the doorway with a thermos in her hands. After I messed up the chicken soup, I called some of the others and she was the only one home who could help me. I needed _some_ way to get Ken chicken soup, right? 

"Hi, Ken. How are you feeling?" she asks sweetly. Watch it, he's _mine._

"Um...okay." 

When I was three, I had a dog named Soccer Ball (yeah, I know, sucky name, but hey, I was only three!) Anyway, this dog used to have a thing for the girl dog next door, and he got real annoyed whenever any other dog got near her. 

The look on Ken's face right now kinda reminds of me of Soccer Ball whenever anyone got near the dog next door. I'm surprised he's not growling. I wonder why he's so... 

Oh! Duh, stupid! The whole 'crush on Hikari' thing. Well, Ken's got nothing to worry about. I've gotten over Hikari. Looking at her now, I wonder how I ever could've been infatuated with her. Sure, she's pretty and sweet and stuff, but Ken....well, Ken's pretty too. And way sweeter than Hikari, especially when he's covered in chocolate... 

"Daisuke?" Oh shit, I've been off in la-la land! Hikari and Ken both probably think I'm drooling over her, even though my head's full of Ken visions. 

"Oh! Uh, thanks for the soup, Hikari." How to get rid of her politely so I can be alone with Ken? Come on, Daisuke, think! "I, uh, really appreciate your help." 

Crap! The look on Ken's face tells me that I'm not easing his fears any. This would be so much easier if my foot didn't live in my mouth. 

"You're welcome, Daisuke." Hikari hands me the thermos and smiles. "I hope you don't mind if I go now; I'm meeting Takeru at the park in a few minutes." 

"Why didn't anyone tell me?" And there's the foot again. I've been obsessed with Hikari so long saying things like that is almost reflex. I glance at Ken; he looks like someone just punched him in the stomach. I'm going to have _so_ much apologizing to do later.... 

"We knew you were busy." Hikari gives me this vaguely annoyed look that I always tried to shrug off before. You know, pretend that she's not upset with me, that she was really interested in me and just hiding it really well. But ever since I kissed Ken a few days ago, I've been noticing things like that. I've been thinking about it, too, and I think I've found another benefit to turning my adorations to Ken. I don't love Hikari anymore, but I wouldn't want to lose her friendship because of some stupid misdirected crush. I don't need to worry about that anymore, though. I know that I don't annoy Ken. 

"Well, then I'd guess you better get going." I look back at Ken. His eyes are dark and hooded and I think he's really upset. Okay, maybe I do annoy him a little, but I'm going to fix that as soon as possible. "I'll see you at school on Monday, 'kay?" 

"All right. Bye, Daisuke!" Boy, Hikari was in almost as big a hurry to leave as I was to have her go. I wonder if she and Takeru....? 

I'm not jealous. Really, I'm not. It's just....she was my first big crush, and it's hard to work yourself to forget about someone like that. Actually, some of my Hikari obsession was due to Ken. Once I realized how attracted I was to him, I was in major denial for a while, so I focused on Hikari and told myself that I didn't care about Ken in that way. Now that I've admitted to myself that I like Ken, though, that old urge is still there. It's like I'm afraid that I'll wake up and discover that everything's been a dream and I'm still trying to hide things. I don't know. I really confuse myself sometimes. 

There's a cough from behind me, and, damn, I almost forgot about Ken! He's carefully not looking at me right now. Well, I'll take care of that! 

"Be back in a minute!" I hurry off to the kitchen and pour some of the soup into a bowl, then get a spoon. He can't ignore me if I'm feeding him, right? 

"All right, Ken, still hungry?" I parade into the room holding up the bowl of soup, oven mitts on my hands. I was hoping that Ken would give me some sort of good response for that, but he just kinda looks away and grunts something. I sit down on the floor next to the bed; I'm going to make him let me apologize whether he wants me to or not. 

"I can feed myself," he grumbles. 

"No you don't." I dip the spoon into the soup and offer it to him. "Open wide and say 'aah.'" 

Ken looks annoyed, but he eats anyway. I suppose this is a good time to apologize, but I can't really think of what to say, so I just offer him some more soup, which he takes without speaking. 

As I give him another spoonful, I catch my reflection in Ken's eyes. I don't know what he sees in me, really. I mean, I look at my reflection and all I see is a scruffy-looking kid with plain brown eyes, skin that looks as if he's been in the sun too long, spiky reddish brown hair styled like he got into a fight with a weed whacker and lost, and goggles perched ridiculously on top of his head. 

Ken, on the other hand, he's something special. With his pale skin like porcelain, that purple-black silk hair, and his mysterious violet eyes. I'm not poetic or anything, but I bet if I was, I could write an epic just describing Ken's looks. He's got that same ethereal quality about him as Hikari, something far away and untouchable. 

There's a difference between Ken and Hikari, though, and I think that's why I love Ken instead of her. Whenever I was near Hikari, I was really aware of how, well, how shabby and plain I am. Nothing special, just boring old Daisuke. So what I would do was be really loud and confident, almost arrogant sometimes, you know, Mr. Big Ego. That way I could hide how small I felt compared to her. Like a caterpillar--or a Wormmon-- staring up at a butterfly. No one ever seemed to understand though. They all thought I was being a big stupid jerk, and never really got that I was doing that because, well, because I hoped that if I acted like I was something special, then maybe I would manage to convince myself that I was. 

Being with Ken, though....I can't act that way. He always saw right through my act; heck, that's one of the things that first attracted me to him in the first place (that and the fact that, as I said before, he's really good-looking). Whenever I was being the king of the egotists and the others were making fun of me and laughing at me, he would always give me this weird look--like he could see right through me. I don't know, maybe he could. All I know is that, when I kissed him Thursday morning, and when I saw him Thursday and Friday afternoon, he looked at me as if I was....special. I remember when I came into his room Thursday afternoon he was still pretty out of it and talking funny, and he started describing me. 

"Daisuke, Daisuke," I remember him saying in this weird, sing-song type of voice. "You're beautiful, did you know that? Chocolate eyes, skin like sand dunes in the Sahara ....those waves of ginger hair....all burning with the holy fires of a temple....a relic, precious and unique..." 

Even though Ken didn't seem quite there at the time, those words really struck me. Ken thinks I'm beautiful and unique. He can find some way to describe me that sounds flowing and special. Hikari was always sweet when she rebuffed me, but her eyes and tone always made me feel plain. But whenever Ken looks at me....I feel like I'm the center of the universe, because I'm the center of _his_ universe, and that's all that matters. That's what makes me seem like more than I am, so I don't feel small and clumsy and stupid. Ken.....Ken _needs_ me somehow, and I like being needed. And just the same, I need him. It's like....I don't know. I'm confusing myself again. All I know is, I'm Ken's world, and he's mine. And I love him for it. 

"Daisuke?" Ken's quiet voice snaps me out of my thoughts. I can't believe I've been silent so long; it's not really my nature to be quiet. After all, I'm the talkative one in this relationship. 

"Yeah, Ken?" 

"Why did you ask Hikari to come over?" He sounds almost scared; I'm starting to think I should have gone without the soup. But his question's a good one. Why _did_ I invite her over? Miyako was available too, but I asked Hikari. I actually have to think this one over for a moment before I answer. I offer him some more soup while I think. 

"I...." I'm not very eloquent, Ken, I'm sorry. I'll just have to explain it in my own way, I hope it's enough for him. "I needed to see her and you together. I....I needed to see that I didn't care for her anymore. Once I kissed you, I knew that you really were the one I loved. Seeing her though....it ended something. I wanted to see her one more time so I could officially say that I was over my crush on her. And I am. I love _you,_ Ken, I really do; I'm sorry I made such a mess of things 'cause I didn't mean to and I just wanted--" 

"It's okay." He takes another spoonful of soup and gives me that familiar, unreadable look. Ken's always so good at hiding what he's thinking behind those walls of purple ice. I kinda understand, though. I like to be open, but I've always felt like I was hiding something somewhere. I don't really feel that way when I'm with Ken, though, and I hope that someday he won't be able to hide things from me either. "It's okay. I just needed to know." 

"Um....so you're not mad at me anymore?" I hope not. We've only been official for a few days, I can't have screwed everything up already! 

"No. I'm not mad." He sounds kinda....distracted. I wonder what he's thinking. Probably something complicated. Maybe that's why he's always so sad, because he thinks too much. I think a lot too, I really do, I just don't show it much. I like to think about happier things, though. Call me an optimist. All I want, really, is to see everyone happy. Isn't that what everybody wants? Forgive me if I annoy people because I'd rather see them laugh at me than sit and brood about stuff. That's just the way I am. 

"Ken?" I move the spoon near his mouth, trying to get his attention. He turns suddenly, and the spoonful splashes all over us both. 

"Now look what you did!" I say to him with a mock glare. Ken looks over at me and smiles, soup dripping from his chin. You know, Hikari was right. He really does have a great smile, and I think it's always magnified because he doesn't do it very often. 

"I'm sorry," he jokes, wiping some of the soup off. I can't help it, I'm in the perfect position and I just need to taste him again....I lean forward and kiss him, cleaning the soup off his lips the best way I know how. 

I half-expected Ken to push me away with another 'I'm sick' excuse, but he doesn't. He kisses me back, almost desperately, like he's afraid I'll disappear or something. I can feel his breath on my chin, hot and fevered. He whispers something as he reaches for me again, whispers so softly I can barely hear him. 

"My holy temple....my ancient, honored relic....my sanctuary, untainted, pure, and wholly mine...." 

I don't quite understand you, Ken, I really don't, but I know that you're mine, and that's all that matters. You're mine, and, right now, you're happy. As long as you're happy, I can be content with chicken soup kisses for the rest of my life. 

---- 

See, told you it was fluffy. As always, good reviews will lead to much happy squealing and flames (and flamers) will be fed to Xellos the stuffed Gomamon.


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